Prosecutors not planning to change staff of investigative group on Gongadze case

Ukrainian Prosecutor General Oleksandr Medvedko has decided not to change the staff of the group investigating the murder of Ukrainian journalist Georgy Gongadze.

The press service of the Prosecutor General's Office told Interfax-Ukraine on Thursday that "based on Articles 58 and 60 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, a resolution has been issued to reject the petition [on changing the staff of the group]."

The press service said that prosecutors had taken the decision, because Valentyna Telychenko, the lawyer for the journalist's widow, Myroslava Gongadze, had not mentioned any evidence in her petition on taking the head of the group, Oleksandr Kharchenko, and Deputy Prosecutor General Mykola Holomsha off the case that could serve as grounds to take such a decision.

Commenting on the decision, Telychenko told the agency that she had not received any answer from the prosecutors.

"Any rejection will mean that the prosecutor general doesn't care about the Criminal Code violations that are evident even in official statements, that he ignores politically biased statements by Deputy Prosecutor General Mykola Holomsha, in particular, that over two years, he knew the whereabouts of [the former head of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's foreign surveillance unit, Oleksiy] Pukach, and that he isn't worried that the organizers of the murder should be found and that the current whole system of the forceful settlement of political problems in Ukraine should be uncovered. He only cares about the closure of this case, punishing only Pukach among those who ordered and organized [the killing]," she said.